Danylo Husar Struk remembered with memorial lecture, journal edition (06/06/04)

Danylo Husar Struk remembered with memorial lecture, journal edition

TORONTO - The fifth Danylo Husar Struk Memorial Lecture was delivered on May 14, at the University of Toronto by Prof. Taras Koznarsky of the department of Slavic languages and literatures, University of Toronto. In the lecture, titled "Kyiv through Myth and Imagination," Prof. Koznarsky highlighted, by literary example and visual presentation, the presence and image of the ancient city in Ukrainian art and literature.

At the reception following the lecture, the most recent edition (Volume 27) of the Journal of Ukrainian Studies, a special issue dedicated to the memory of Danylo Husar Struk, was presented by Roman Senkus, guest editor of the double 342-page JUS.

Following are remarks delivered on the occasion by Mr. Senkus.

- Oksana Zakydalsky

* * *

Nearly five years ago, on June 19, 1999, my former professor, colleague, and friend Danylo Husar Struk died much too soon after suffering a heart attack in Munich, Germany. From 1967 until his untimely death, Danylo developed and taught many of this university's Ukrainian language and literature courses.

In November 1982 he replaced Prof. George Luckyj as the managing editor of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine. In 1989, after he had overseen the successful publication of Volumes 1 and 2, Danylo succeeded the late Prof. Volodymyr Kubijovyc as the encyclopedia's editor-in-chief. Danylo devoted time and effort beyond the call of duty to ensuring that all five volumes were written, edited and published by 1993.

For nearly 17 years he was, to quote Frank Sysyn, "the heart and soul of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Without his dedication, it is hard to imagine how the original project would have been completed."

From 1990 Danylo was also associate director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies in charge of its Toronto Office at this university. That office has housed the editorial staff of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine since 1977, the Journal of Ukrainian Studies from 1976 to 1985 and again since 1993, and the CIUS Press since 1992.

As president of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Western Europe, in the last two years of his life Danylo devoted much time and energy to raising funds for the creation of an institute of Ukrainian studies at the Shevchenko Society's building in Sarcelles near Paris and computerizing the library's catalogue there.

With Danylo's death, Ukrainian studies in the English-speaking world and at the University of Toronto in particular, the CIUS and the Shevchenko Scientific Society suffered a major loss. Work on the encyclopedia he was so devoted to has continued, however, as an electronic publication - one with the potential of becoming the best web-based source of information about all aspects of Ukraine, its inhabitants and its personalities in the present and in the past, and one that is free and readily accessible to users throughout the world. As the managing editor of this project, www.encyclopediaofukraine.com, I am honored to be able to carry on Danylo's work in this way.

The special issue of the Journal of Ukrainian Studies whose appearance we are celebrating today is dedicated to the memory of Danylo Husar Struk. It contains 18 essays in Ukrainian literature and one in linguistics. Eighteen of the 19 essays were contributed by Danylo's colleagues and students in response to a call for papers I issued in the autumn of 1999.

Nearly all of the essays concern writers Danylo esteemed, enjoyed, taught about, and even wrote on: Taras Shevchenko, Olha Kobylianska, Vasyl Stefanyk, Petro Karmansky, Pavlo Tychyna, Mykola Kulish, Bohdan Ihor Antonych, Mykhailo Rudnytsky, Emma Andiievska, Bohdan Rubchak, Ihor Kalynets, Vasyl Stus, and the post-Soviet authors Yurii Andrukhovych, Viktor Neborak, Oleksandr Irvanets, Oksana Zabuzhko, Iurii Izdryk, Iurii Pokalchuk and Natalka Bilotserkivets.

All but one of the contributors were Danylo's colleagues or former students. They include most of the leading scholars of Ukrainian literature in North America and Australia today, and two prominent Ukrainian literary figures, Yurii Andrukhovych and Tamara Hundorova.

I am sincerely grateful to all of the authors of this special issue for their excellent contributions. Their quiet patience while awaiting the appearance of a much-delayed publication is appreciated. They can all be proud of the result, as am I. It is a fine addition to Ukrainian studies and a fitting and lasting tribute to our late colleague, teacher and friend Danylo Husar Struk. I also thank Taras Zakydalsky, the editor of the Journal of Ukrainian Studies, for his unstinting cooperation, support, and good work.

To the members of Danylo's immediate family - his wife, Oksana, his mother, Daria Husar, his sister Natalka Husar, his children Boryslava, Luka, and Ostap, and his stepchildren, Andrij, Julian and Tetiana Wynnyckyj - I offer complimentary copies of the special issue courtesy of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.

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